GEND2033 Excessive Appetites: Sociocultural Perspectives on Addiction, Drug Use and Gender
Later Year Course
| Offered By | School of Cultural Inquiry |
|---|---|
| Academic Career | Undergraduate |
| Course Subject | Gender Studies |
| Offered in | Second Semester, 2010 |
| Unit Value | 6 units |
| Course Description |
This interdisciplinary course will introduce students to contemporary understandings of addiction and drug and alcohol use, from a socio-cultural perspective. After examining dominant models of addiction and substance use, it focuses on drug use as a gendered practice. It addresses the question of why addiction and drug use have such prominence as medical and social problems in contemporary Western cultures and provides a range of concepts and tools for understanding their significance. The course has a two parts: 1: Understanding Addiction In the first part of the course, dominant models of addiction and substance dependence will be examined in detail. The focus will be on how they constitute addiction as a disorder and how this connects with notions of rationality, desire, freedom and the nature of the human body. We will investigate the continued debates about ‘what' addiction is and what these debates reveal about medical science and conceptions of health. 2: Rethinking Gender and Drugs In the second part of the course, students will be introduced to the idea of alcohol and drug use as socio-cultural practices which occur within specific social contexts. Gender will be the central theme while the significance of race, age and class in structuring patterns and experiences of drug use will also be explored. This course will count as a core course in the Gender, Sexuality and Culture major and in the Health, Medicine and the Body major |
| Learning Outcomes |
By the end of the course students should be able to
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| Indicative Assessment |
Short papers (500 words x 3) 45% Essay/ Project (2000 words) 35% Tutorial attendance 5% Tutorial facilitation 10% In class reflective excercise 5% |
| Workload | 24 hours of lectures and 12 hours of tutorials. 4-7 hours of independent study depending on assessment schedule. |
| Areas of Interest | Gender Studies |
| Requisite Statement | Prerequisite: Any first year arts course |
| Recommended Courses | GEND1001 |
| Prescribed Texts | The prescribed reading for this course will be available in a reading brick. It will include texts from the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, history, public health, social medicine and gender studies. |
| Preliminary Reading | Room, R. (2003) The Cultural Framing of Addiction, Janus Head. |
| Majors/Specialisations | Gender, Sexuality and Culture and Health, Medicine and Body |
| Academic Contact | Helen Keane |
The information published on the Study at ANU 2010 website applies to the 2010 academic year only. All information provided on this website replaces the information contained in the Study at ANU 2009 website.
